London Restaurants

City Social

In 2011, after nearly 20 years as a loyal lieutenant to Gordon Ramsay, Jason Atherton finally decided that he should go it alone and slipped away to open a few restaurants. At the last count his empire included five restaurants in London; three in Singapore; and a couple each in Hong Kong and Shanghai. This year Atherton opened City Social, in the City in partnership with Restaurant Associates, taking on the restaurant at the top of Tower 42 where Gary Rhodes once strutted his stuff.

Like all dining rooms reached after a surging journey in an express lift, City Social has impressive views, even if they are somewhat cluttered with other skyscrapers. This is the place to play spot the tower. In the distance is Canary Wharf, closer is the Heron Tower, the Walkie Talkie, the Cheesegrater, and to the south, the Shard. If you were led blindfold from the suburbs to City Social, as soon as you got a glimpse of the dining room you would know that you had ended up in the City, even before you clocked the view. The lowered ceilings are a rich brown. It is ridiculously comfortable and unsettlingly clubby.

The bar seats 85 and there is an imaginative cocktail list (using ingredients like dehydrated gooseberry raisins; smoked salt; rhubarb bacon; and PG Tips syrup), plus trad drinks that are simple and strong.

One of Jason Atherton’s great talents is the ability to write a menu that is littered with things you want to eat. The dishes here are pinpoint targeted at a City clientele, starters divide into uncooked and cooked; there’s a whole section for pasta and rice; and after the mains you’ll come to the grill section. So if you want to pop in for a lightning lunch there’s a salad or bowl of pasta to suit, while more determined diners can order up the whole Scottish lobster, duck fat chips and Choron sauce (£38). The approach is pretty plush and there is a strong undercurrent of luxury. The wine list is perfectly in tune with this mood, at one end of the scale there is the honest red from Anjou that acts as a house red in all Atherton’s London restaurants (£9.50 a glass, £39 a bottle) but bankers being bankers, you’ll also find a 1996 Romanée-St-Vivant, Grand Cru, Domaine de l’Arlot which you can order by the 125ml glass at £70 a pop.

Thankfully the kitchen is talented enough to back up the blandishments of the menu. Dishes are well presented with complex combinations of taste and texture. From the hot starters pig’s trotter and ham hock with crisp Mrs Brown’s black pudding, apple and Madeira (£12) is wholly successful. This is a reinvention of that classic trotter recipe – Crubeens – and one that makes the most of crunchy textures, small sticks of black pudding bound tight in bacon and the sharp apple a perfect contrast. This dish is surprisingly light. Options in the Pasta and Rice section include a risotto of ceps, crisp veal sweetbread and a Madeira glaze (£12/£22). The risotto is at that perfect point where rich and gloopy meets the very last bit of bite from the rice. Very creamy. Very good. A great showcase for the sweetbreads. The main courses come in substantial portions, which is only fair as they are not cheap. The ‘rack of Romney Marsh lamb, braised shoulder shepherd’s pie’ (£32) could be two meals – a pair of large chops with an entourage of heritage carrots and asparagus spears. This is perfectly cooked meat, its crisp skin without a hint of greasiness. As for dessert, simple things are done well, and the ‘Bourbon vanilla custard tart’ (£8) is as unctuous as a crème brulée.

Jason Atherton’s City Social is the product of its environment. The customers are from the City. The pricing is what you’d expect in the City. The service is slick enough for the City. Pull up a chair and enjoy both the view and the cooking.

A three course meal for two including wine, water and service costs about £190.